Sheep

So at the end of week one, we had seven ewes lambed, fifteen lambs; one single, two triplets and four twins; nine tups and six ewes. Eight are still to lamb, six with twins and two sets of triplets. According to the raddle marks, five are due in week two plus Smudge, who was due in week one but hadn’t obliged.

Monday 2am, Niamh lambed two ewe lambs. The first one had the head back and I had a bit of a panic, because I wasn’t sure I had the right head for the legs. I phoned the vet – I don’t tend to mess around - then had another try and the head slipped into place and the lamb was safely delivered. I had to phone the vet to say all was well. Following the calf abortion that never was, I’ll be starting to get a reputation ☺. The second was presenting normally, so I left her to get on with it while I tailed Trixie and Twinkle’s lambs and dosed the ewes, ready for turnout in the morning. Niamh’s a great mum; this is her fourth lambing. Previously she’s had a single, twins and a single. Her twins from two years ago, Tansy and Treacle, are lambing for the first time this year.

We usually aim to start lambing on 1st April; this year, we’re a bit earlier because we were on holiday in November and wanted to put the tup in before we went to make sure he was working.

According to “The Chart” and raddle marks, our first ewe hit 147 days on Monday 23rd March.

Poppy

So the shed was prepared and the lambing box restocked in plenty of time and, wonder of wonders, Poppy delivered twins (one tup, one ewe) as planned on Monday 23rd. This is her third lambing – she’s had twins and triplets previously – so it was really no surprise to find her with two lambs, up and fed, without any intervention from me.

We had the scanner here last week to scan the ewes. We've used the same lassie for seven years and she's never been wrong - and I'm hoping she's right this year too.

Of the fifteen to the tup - eight ewes and seven gimmers - all are in lambs. One gimmer is carrying a single and the other six have twins; of the eight ewes, we've got four sets of twins and four sets of triplets. So 33 lambs scanned or 220%. Gulp.

We had one set of twins last year from Poppy; she's expecting twins this year but her twin sister is expecting triplets (she had twins last year). Poppy's triplets were all much the same size and she did a good job of raising them all herself. I'd be lucky to get away with that thsi year, so I'll be buying milk powder and extra bottles, just in case. I might manage to twin one on to the single - never done that before either.

I suppose it's the time of year when we look backwards then forwards. I had a long list of things to do today as the first day "back at work", like booking a post movement TB test for our wee bull, ordering a headstone for Tess's grave and bringing my Flock Register up to date.

I was also taking time to have a good look at the ewes. We've 25 at home just now; two retirees, eight ewe hoggs and the eight ewes and seven gimmers that went to the tup in November. The scanner will be out this month sometime to scan them - just waiting for her to get back to me with a date and time. Taylor and Ted are up at Braeside.

I don't want to bore you with tales of Taylor's sex life but so far, he's covered five ewes since going in on Sunday afternoon - Pixie and Poppy, Penny, Lucy and a coloured gimmer with a brown face, that's one of Niamh's twins from 2013. I never know their names until they lamb :-) Five down; ten to go.

Of course, one never counts ones lambs before they're up and sucking (and even then, there's no guarantee that they'll make it to sale), but this is the start of the process. In fact, it's not the start - the start was vaccinating the ewes against abortion, checking them for fitness and checking Taylor for fitness, so the sheep year really starts, for us, in early October, before that year's lambs are away.

Since we only have a small number of ewes, it's not financially viable to buy a commercial system for recording data about our sheep but I do like to have a record of some performance data - I couldn't possibly remember everything, or even anything some days.

So since 2009, our first lambing season, I've recorded how many lambs have been born to each ewe, date of lambing, sire, tag numbers. I now also record birth weights and sometimes 30 day weights but I confess to being less rigorous about this than I might be. We don't have a weigh crate so they have to be weighed using the spring balance and by 30 days old, they are pretty heavy to lift :-)

Today’s job (18th October) was to bring our female sheep home from our temporary grazing. Our fifteen breeding ewes and gimmers were at Barry Mill and our eight ewe lambs plus two “nurse” ewes (retired but two of our “originals” so here for life) were at a farm near Arbroath.

A combination of routine and the docile (and food motivated) nature of the Coloured Ryeland made this fairly easy. Since we’ve had the temporary grazing, getting on the trailer has become part of the normal routine and usually means “new grass”, so loading the two small flocks was pretty straightforward; when they see the open trailer, they’re on.

With Nemo going for pies in March, we needed to buy a new tup this year. And we have! He's called High Edge Taylor and was bred by Debbie Bostock in Derbyshire. I picked him up in Carlisle on 20th September, so he's been in isolation since then, while he's been wormed and fluked.

Since he seems in rude good health, we let him out today, along with his companion, Little Ted. They are in the "garden" round the caravan - lots of grass for two batchelor boys!

Little Ted is one of this year's tup lambs; his services as a companion for the tup were required because of the untimely death of Dickie, the previous wether. Little Ted is way, way smaller than all the other tup lambs; he's also, coincidentally, out of the same ewe as Dickie.

Help ma boab! Over six weeks since the last diary entry. But it's not because we've been slacking or on holiday. There was a wee business of an independence referendum going on here that proved a bit of a distraction. Now the result didn't go the way we wanted, but we'll just have to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and start again. But politics is not for this forum, so tat's enough of that.

We've also had the Scottish Smallholder and Grower Festival last Saturday - that takes up most of September. So we're playing catch up a bit in all aspects of life :-)

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Who is the Accidental Smallholder?

Hello, I'm Rosemary Champion, aka the Accidental Smallholder. I'm a smallholder in the east of Scotland and started this website to help other people who are interested in smallholding to find their way, and to share my experiences.